A self titled album? Was that something that you thought of right away or did it come as you were working on it?

John: Actually, we decided it or brought it up before we ever got into the studio. I had kinda written this proposal up for everybody, outlining what I thought were some of the things that would be cool to try to tackle. Certain engineers and mixers we could use and what kind of album, sound and direction and within that part of it, was the idea, at least to discuss, that it might be a good idea to self title this one. It wasn´t set in stone and if there was something that was just obviously way more fitting to what we were doing, then we were being open minded. Keeping that in mind as we started to talk about the kind of album we wanted to make, we had Mike Mangini there in the room with us and we´re writing these songs that were coming out really powerful and very signature of Dream Theater, it started making a lot of sense. Then when we had presented it to Roadrunner and our management and only after hearing four songs, they were all aboard and thought it was the greatest idea. Included in the initial proposal, and again with the possibility that it might change, was the idea of just the way the album cover came out. It would just be the symbol, a very understated confidence and basically not titling it, not having our mind on the cover and only using the symbol, was a bold, strong statement. Kinda like they do in the movies when a new Superman is coming out. You see an S and you don´t have to say anything else.

Is it usually you coming up with album titles and such or is it a group effort?

John: It depends on what it is. Whoever comes up with the title or the concept for the album, is always discussed. Sometimes somebody will just have an idea and sometimes it just happens on the road. You´re hanging out with each other a lot and your mind kinda starts to fast forward to the next sequence. You start talking about things out loud. When we did “Scenes from a memory”, when we were writing it, we started talking about making a concept album and it was just like the timing seemed right. When we did “Train of thought” and we made that album the way we did, it was very focused and it were all discussions like “It would be cool if we did this!” and then these discussions turn into concrete directions.

Just using the band name for the album, was that also something to do with it being the first real album with Mangini? Like a fresh start?

John: In a way. It´s funny because we´ve been together for 28 years and one of the things that always bugs me with bands that have been around and have a history, you hear fans going “Those guys, are they still around?” or they go see them playing live and the band is trying to play a new song and it´s like “Don´t play the new song! Play the old stuff!”. I don´t want that to ever happen to us. I want us to always reinvent and always having another opportunity to catch people´s attention. Sometimes, the way it works out is that, the first time they heard our band might be this album and they won´t even know the back catalog.

How do you push yourselves and challenge yourselves after all this time?

John: It´s kinda part of the fun, to be honest. We take a lot of pride in what we do and when you take a lot of pride in it and you hopefully put that into what you do so there´s quality to it. People kinda get used to the fact that you´re not just gonna be lazy or complacent or not try hard. It´s like when BMW are coming out with cars. If you look at the history of cars, they get better and better. The materials get better and they learn new technology and it´s like they´re proud of each one, it´s a heritage. They´re not gonna come out with a shitty car that doesn´t work. (laughs) The challenge, as you bring it up, to be creative, is the fun of it. It´s like “What can we do better?”. It´s kinda cool.

With every band there´s always one or two albums that people look at as the top album. With Dream Theater, a lot of people see “Images and words” as your best one. Within the band, do you look at it as being your top album too?

John: In a way. There are certain ones we have in common. “Images and words” is special to us as a band because it´s the first album for James and that was his Mike Mangini time and he ended up being the voice for Dream Theater. It was special because before that we had really struggled. We had put out “When dream and day unite” and it didn´t really do anything. We didn´t tour, the critics liked it but it sold two albums and that was the end of that. We didn´t know that we were actually gonna be able to do this again and then “Images and words” kinda broke out for us in a time when Nirvana and grunge and everything was really growing. We were just the odd man out, but somehow it poked through and our career as a global band, spawned from that. It will always be a special album for us. There´s a lot of it that´s very dated sounding and there´s a lot of things we´ve learned since then, but it´s certainly special and I relate to, as a fan of other bands, saying that. Even if you take AC/DC, they have tons of great albums, but man, “Back in black”!

And I remember the video for “Pull me under” getting played on MTV and other channels all the time and them really pushing it. That doesn´t happen with metal bands anymore.

John: Definitely not. It was funny because that was kinda the end of the whole “Headbanger´s ball” thing and all that and it all went away after that. It was also weird because it became like a rock radio hit. I remember being home in Long Island or being in New Jersey, turning on the radio and it would be on, so that was bizarre in itself and it doesn´t really happen that often.

Is there an album that stands out as being a disappointment? That it didn´t turn out the way you wanted it to?

John: You know, they all signify a certain part of your life, so you don´t just wanna discredit them. The album that had the most inexperience was of course the first one. We had never gone into the studio before. I remember going in and I brought my little amp but we didn´t even use it. We had about two and a half weeks to record the whole thing and there´s a lot of shit on it that I would´ve loved to have done differently, but it´s also special because we were so young and those songs were around for a while, so it has meaning.

What are you like as a producer, since you´ve produced a lot of the Dream Theater albums?

John: I´m a hardass! (laughs)

It just feels like it would be easier having an outsider telling you what to do, than one of the band members?

John: Well, here´s the thing… we´ve had those guys… “That was horrible! That sounds like a bad Van Halen solo!”. (laughs). There are certainly a lot to be said for outside producers who are talented and I´m sure we would benefit from that and we have in the past. With myself producing, the benefit that I have that they don´t have, is that I know those guys better than anybody. I know how they work and not only do I know how to get the best out of them, but I know how to do it in a way where they still respect me in the end. You´re not demoralizing somebody. (laughs) We leave our egos aside and we´re comfortable with each other enough to literally say “It sucks!”. We´ll laugh about it and I´ll say “You need some coffee or something, because you´re playing like you´re sleeping?”. (John pulls out his iPhone and plays me a bunch of sound clips with Joe Pesci from the movie Goodfellas, that he uses in the studio when someone screws up.)

After playing together for so long, do you still surprise each other in the studio?

John: Absolutely! That´s the amazing thing with working with guys at that level. They´re so talented at what they do and they countinue to want to push themselves. We´re constantly blown away by each other. It´s really amazing to see. Most recently, working with Mike Mangini in a closed setting, everybody behind their instruments and working out ideas. Like Jordan and I were working on this part for some time and it was pretty intricate and there´s some syncopations and crap going on and Mike´s sitting around, “Hey Mike, you wanna try something today?” and then he just plays this unbelievable thing and we´re all just laughing, going “What planet do you come from?”. We absolutely surprise each other. It was great having Mike in the studio as part of that writing process, because you kinda feel like as you´re writing these riffs and ideas, you have a guy that can just do about anything. It was like “Mike, you think you can do that?” and he just said “Yeah, I think I can do that.”. (laughs)

Since 2003 you´ve released an album every other year. Is that like a set schedule or does it just happen?

John: The schedule is really based on the whole cycle of the album. We have to sort of work things backwards and really look ahead as far as not only when we want the album to come out, but maybe even what tour dates afterwards we´re trying to secure. As you work backwards it kinda takes a while. This album we started in January and we delivered it at the end of June, so it´s six months later and then you need time to set it up and release it, so it comes out three months later in September. Then the tour happens four months after that, so you´re already a year later. Certainly we could sit home and just kinda wait (laughs), but it´s fun.

I recently talked to Alter Bridge and they had a song recorded that didn´t make the cut for the new album. Does that ever happen with Dream Theater?

John: No, we kinda don´t do the extra song thing. I don´t know? You put so much time into each one, so you don´t wanna leave any of them off. We really don´t spend time with anything we don´t believe in. If it´s not working, we kinda know already. We might get to that point where we´re working on something for a while and then we scrap it, but we never fully actually record it and then feel like “No.”. It would be a major disappointment, but a lot of bands do record a surplus of material. The flipside is that they have all this extra stuff, which we never have. (laughs)

As a producer, with all the new technology coming out, it´s gotta be hell keeping track of everything and learning new stuff?

John: Yeah and that´s why you hire talented engineers to do that. (laughs) I´m a guitar player first and I try to stay up with what is the latest and greatest out there, which in guitars is kinda funny because it goes in two directions. It goes in the more old school, trying to capture what was direction and then you have the cutting edge stuff with the direct digital plug ins and things like that. I try to keep up with all of it. Whether or not I use it all, is another story, but with recording technology and things, I definitely defer to the people that I like to work with because I´m not an engineer or a mixer. It´s in the same way that I wouldn´t try to wire the electrics in my house.

Is every member in the band replaceable?

John: No, I wouldn´t say that. In fact, you don´t even wanna think about it. It´s a weird thing to think of. It´s like one of those competitive slogans “Everyone´s replaceable.”. I guess it´s true in concept, but I think it gets to the point where if a certain combination or a certain person isn´t in a certain band, the sound is gone. It depends on each band and who it might be. You don´t wanna get too cocky about it, right, because “everyone´s replaceable”… (laughs)

Will there be another “Rock discipline” DVD?

John: It´s kinda funny. I did that one so long ago and it was the first time I did it and I did so much preparation and I made this whole complete video and I never had the desire to do it again. I´ve done other instructional things, like books and collections of articles I did for Guitar World, but I´ve never since then, done another one. I get asked a lot to do it and I appreciate it. Eventually, maybe that´s something I would do. It´s not an itch that I have to scratch. I think that when I feel like it´s something I really wanna do, I would love to do it. The second part of that is the schedule with Dream Theater. You´re either in the studio, on tour, thinking about a tour, recovering from a tour, writing music… Yeah, you could fill up every last week of the year, but then you have no life, so the other part is finding the time. I would only do it one way and that´s the same way I did the other one. I´m not gonna rush in and do something half assed.

Last thing. Could you see Mike Portnoy´s band The Winery Dogs opening up for Dream Theater, if he asked you?

John: Yeah, I mean… I said this a long time ago. When you play with somebody for that long, I don´t see that you would never see that person again. I can picture us playing a festival or something and we have history involved with all of our ex members. Sounds like a club! (laughs) I think the best thing to do is keep that type of thing friendly. It´s just the way to be in life, you know, but the next tour we´re doing is just “An evening with Dream Theater”, so there are no opening bands.

Rolling Stone har snackat med Schon, Cain, Valory och Pineda om den kommande dokumentären. "Jonathan Cain: Ironically, the Internet proved to be a friend. When Arrival first came out [in 2001], Napster stole the album. We spent a ton of money flying to New York making this record only to have it up there for fans to get it for free, so I hated the Internet. Then it comes around to serve us well in the future. It's quite a tool and for us it was a blessing."Läs mer HÄR/Niclas

"This fictional rock 'n' roll memoir by acclaimed rock writer Neil Daniels tells the story of Johnny Cannon; an Alice Cooper tribute singer who used to front a band called The Druids, one of the most exciting and distinctive bands of the ‘80s hair metal era. They released two albums ('The Flight Of The Druids' and 'Kingdome Come') and toured the UK, Europe, America and Japan before calling it a day. Vividly recalled and entertainingly written, this mock rock memoir is filled with hilarious anecdotes, candid diary entries and tales of unrelenting honesty. It is also a moving tribute to a bygone era.
Hair metal was big business in the ‘80s until grunge exploded and it consequently became universally derided and hair metal bands became relics of the past. Many bands lost their record deals, folded or suffered constant line-up changes and were reduced to playing in tiny clubs or going back to the real world and working for someone else. They got real jobs. Johnny Cannon was there and he can tell you everything.
Johnny Cannon narrates the history of The Druids and the hair metal genre from the early ‘80s to 1991 when everything changed. 'It’s My Life' is filled with stories of excess by a former ‘80s rock star turned tribute singer and is Britain’s alternative to Mötley Crüe’s hugely successful band autobiography The Dirt."/Niclas

På Warners kontor i centrala Stockholm slår jag mig ner i en skön stol för ett kortare snack med Satyr. Det nya och självbetitlade albumet ligger snart på skivdiskarna världen över och självfallet var det detta samtalet kom att handla om. 20 minuter går fort och när du har en pratglad norrman framför dig leder det hela till att du inte hinner med fler än fem frågor. Satyr gav ett väldigt beläst och intelligent intryck och hela samtalet kom i stort sett att kretsa kring den analoga inspelningen av albumet. Jag nämnde att flera band jag talat med vurmar för den analoga ljudbilden och mitt intryck är att den är på väg tillbaka. Det tror inte Satyr. The album was recorded using analog equipment. A lot of bands seem to be doing this now. What´s your thoughts about it? I get the feeling that it´s kinda coming back. Satyr: Well, I´m actually under the impression that it´s not coming back. I might be wrong, but my impression is that music throughout the last three or four years, is disgustingly processed. I have talked to people that have worked with some of the true superstars. There´s this Norwegian production bureau called Stargate and they do a lot of stuff for Rihanna and so on and they are obviously very good at what they do, but I´ve talked to them as a musician and about sound and some of the things that I intensely hate about modern day music productions and they explained to me that it´s what the artists want, management wants, record company wants, radio wants. They don´t want it to sound real, they want it to sound super processed and as a producer, that´s what you cater to, of course. I guess that´s the shocking part of it. I drove around once in a car with one of the instrument endorsers of Satyricon and he played me some record from a very famous metal band, that was heavily processed. Everything sounded very powerful and ultra tight, but to me it was lifeless and dead. He was very enthusiastic and he was blasting it in the car. It was impressive, but I still hated it. I just said “Ok, fine.”, but I thought to myself “How can you not hear that this sounds so fake, so manufactured?”. I was hoping that this Satyricon record, working they way that we worked, not only would it communicate the emotions within the songs, the atmosphere, but also perhaps somehow contribute to what I´m hoping will become more of a trend, because that would be one of those good trends. For bands to do things more organic. That´s not something new to Satyricon, but the difference is that it´s been so much hardcore and uncompromising on this record, compared to previous records and that´s perhaps because we felt these songs needed it more than what we´ve done previously. But it was also because I´ve never felt so strongly about these things as I do now. When I had discussions about the record with A&R legend Monte Connor, and he´s a music nerd like me and I said to him “I think a lot of the sounds you´ve been hearing from metal bands in the last few years, are gonna be tomorrow´s embarrassments, just like when people look at photos of themselves from the 80´s.”. I think a lot of people a few years down the road, when they listen to their records from like 2012, are gonna go “What were we thinking?”. Then Monte said “I think you´re right. I actually think a few years down the road, a lot of the records that are popular today, are gonna be remastered to make them sound more analog.”, which is the complete fuck up of some of the classic analog records that are being remastered in a way to make them sound more digital and sterile. I think the purist approach on the record helped create the record that it is. We thought that if we were gonna get this to come across the right way and to have these songs provide that kinda authentic language, like we feel when we play them, we had to make the record, to a large degree, like it feels that you´re in the room with Satyricon when you hear the record. That´s what we tried to do and I think we succeded. There´s a reason why it´s self titled because we really feel it defines the mentality and the musical philosophy of the band in terms of song writing and it shows what Satyricon is about and it also points at the future. A part of what defines Satyricon is a progressive attitude.You worked on it in a very isolated place for a long time. What do you draw inspiration from? Do you read a lot? Satyr: I never stay in such a way that I stay there all the time. What I did was that I talked to an engineer friend of mine, where I know that he was using this old cabin lodge on his private property and it´s actually dated from 1550, because you can see it in the wood and from the building techniques. He had almost like an antique garage in there where he would set up his music and being in there is so cool. I said “I love the atmosphere in here and to have something like this and do the Satyricon record in…” and he said “Yo can do that!”. I was like “No, we can´t do a record in here.” But he just answered “I think you could.”. I started going through the process of myself, since having done this for so long and being used to be working in some of the best studios in the world and then all of a sudden try to move into something that was actually made to either store food in or to keep goats or pigs in. We actually did most of the album in there. We were in the studio for about six months and five months were in there and we did six to eight months of pre production and rehearsals in there as well, to get used to the place and feed off of the vibein the song writing and get acquainted and just feel at home. I´m very glad that I did that and I think a part of how I convinced myself into taking that chance, was based on experiences like the “Now, Diabolical” record, which I´m very pleased with, but there are things on the record that I would´ve wanted differently and I think part of why certain things didn´t come out they way I wanted them to, was that I wasn´t where I needed to be mentally because I hated the place where I was working so much. In hindsight I realized that it affected me more negatively than I understood at the time.
So hadn´t you stayed in this cabin, it might have been a different sounding album? Satyr: Yes, definitely. Even the fact that everything was so primitive. There´s not much to do outside of recording and I guess that it is actually quite nice to be at a place where there´s a sense of comfort and a possibility to have a little bit of variation during the day, but again, if you have something which is very rustic and primitive, it becomes very intense. You never have breaks, you just go, go, go because there´s nothing else to do. That creates a bubble and you find yourself living in a world within the world. To disconnect from reality when working with music, is something I have great experiences with and I think that´s why a lot of people, whether they´re in music or journalism or whatever, find it constructive to do work during the night. I don´t think it´s the fact that it´s dark outside or some dark force connecting with your inner self, I just think it´s because the phone doesn´t ring, there aren´t as many new e-mails, there´s no spouse telling you to do things. It´s more quiet and you enjoy being in that state of mind where you undistracted can move on with your stuff and stay in that mind frame. So recording like that is something you´d prefer? Satyr: Absolutely. Not necessarily in a situation like “We could easily do that again.”, but more in a way that in the future I will continue to be tough in the research process of how to make it and where to make a record. That´s the important thing. It could be done anywhere if you feel that it facilitates and has the kind of qualities that you know you desperately need to make the record. Also with the mixing of the record. I reached out to different kind of people, because I don´t send away mixes. I mix myself together with an audio engineer and I think we did good research on this record and Adam Kasper that I worked together with was the only one that didn´t say anything about his rate and so on. He just said “I know the band quite well. I really like Satyricon and I´m confident that I could help them get an authentic sound.”. Looking at all the e-mails, I just thought to myself that he´s really the only guy who has the right mentality. Hasn´t he done Queensryche? I kinda recognize his name. Satyr: He´s done Queensryche, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Nirvana and a lot of typical Seattle stuff, but he´s also done REM and stuff like that. I always emphasize that when you look for a team for the record, who they have worked with in the past will serve as an indication of what lever they´re at. Other than that, what you need to do is to talk to them on the phone. People that have worked with big bands, high standards and big productions, it probably means that they are trusted as consummate professionals, but you need to talk to them on the phone to hear what their philosophy on sound is. If theirs is different than yours, it will never work. Artists out there, whether young or experienced, should never ever look for famous names. They should look for people that think like themselves because that´s what´s gonna work.
/Niclas

måndag 12 augusti 2013

Ny bok om Pantera!

Pressrelease:"Reinventing Metal
The True Story of Pantera
and the Tragically Short Life of Dimebag Darrell An Unauthorized Biography
by Neil Daniels Foreword by Jeff Waters, afterword by Brian Slagel MONTCLAIR, NJ—Pantera’s story begins in Arlington, Texas, in the early ’80s, at a time when American metal was just coming to fruition in the form of California thrash-metal bands like Metallica and Slayer and New Yorkers like Anthrax. It was an era when traditional heavy music bands were banished to the underground by labels, press, and the industry…unless they were playing a new kind of metal. When everyone said metal was dead in the mid-’90s, Pantera was selling tons of records and concert tickets. They were the mainstream bridge from the old-school metal to the new school we have seen grow the last ten years. Influencing subgenres like nu-metal, groove metal, metalcore, and grindcore, Pantera was an inspiration to musicians trying to hang in and survive the roughest decade in real metal music. Reinventing Metal: The True Story of Pantera and the Tragically Short Life of Dimebag Darrell (Backbeat Books, Sept. 2013, $22.99) by Neil Daniels is the first biography of one of the most original, uncompromising, and influential bands in metal history. Daniels conducted many interviews with those who knew the group well to get the full story of the band, focusing on all of the members and covering their Texas high school start all the way through their global mega-success and eventual break-up.
Their story is a tragic and complicated one, not only because of the murder of guitarist Dimebag Darrell in 2004, but also because of the bad blood and hostility that continues between the three surviving members. Pantera really were a unique band, innovative and dangerous. Reinventing Metal will tell you why. Neil Daniels has written about rock and metal for a wide range of magazines, fanzines, and websites. He has authored more than a dozen books, including titles on Judas Priest, Robert Plant, Iron Maiden, Metallica, and AC/DC. Visit his website at neildaniels.com." /Niclas

måndag 5 augusti 2013

Officiell dokumentär om KISS.

Saxat från Classic Rock Magazine:"The film promises to offer the most in-depth look yet at the band who formed in New York in the early 70s as Wicked Lester and went on to sell over 75 million albums.
Kiss singer/rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley says: “We are thrilled to have Alan on board to help tell the definitive KIss story. Alan’s knowledge of the band amazed even us.”
Band manager Doc McGhee added: “It’s an epic undertaking and everyone’s committed 100 per cent to bring this story to the big screen. We knew Alan was the only man for the job and we can’t wait to get started.”
Parker is currently in New York where work on the movie has just started. He comments: “I’m incredibly proud to be on board for this film, telling the story of a band I love so much and that has such a rich history.”
Parker’s past credits include Never Mind The Sex Pistols, Who Killed Nancy, Rebel Truce: The Story of The Clash and Monty Python: Almost The Truth. His most recent release was the acclaimed Hello Quo! documentary."För ett halvår sedan nämnde en väldigt pålitlig källa för mig att Sam Dunn på Banger Films planerade att filma en dokumentär om bandet. Källan i fråga hade mött Dunn på en tillställning i LA där han berättat detta. Nu verkar det inte bli av och frågan är hur bra den här Parker-dokumentären blir? Och vad finns kvar att berätta eller visa? Jag tror dock att Dunn hade kunnat göra ett riktigt bra jobb. hans film om Rush är utmärkt. /Niclas